The reduction of mesh noise is an ongoing objective in the manufacture of gears of all types (e.g. spur, helical, bevel, hypoid, crown). It has been proposed to reduce the noise of gears running in mesh by including a honing process subsequent to heat treating as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,942,389 to Praeg et al. A further polishing step subsequent to honing for enhancing the surface finish is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,990 to Tersch.
Finishing each member of a gear pair with a different finishing process to reduce gear noise is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,307 to Klingelnberg wherein one member is finished by honing and the other member is finished by grinding in an effort to create scratch-like machining marks or microstriations having different orientations on the tooth surfaces of respective gear pair members. German Patent No. DE 3826029 similarly discloses the avoidance of identical surface structures in an effort to reduce mesh noise by grinding one member of a gear pair and skiving the other member.